


The Soldier

by IRegretNothingAndEverything



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Character Study, Daemon Seperation, Kinda, Minor Character Death, The Winter Soldier - Freeform, i just really wanted to highlight the differences between Bucky and the Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 12:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17467847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything
Summary: The Winter Soldier does not have a daemon





	The Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> Oof okay I've been on a daemon kick lately alright then   
> Enjoy this mess

The Winter Soldier doesn’t have a daemon. 

Why bother with one? They’re a weakness, a liability, a thing for him to use to control other people. 

Despite the deep wrongness of it, he grabs people’s daemons to get what he wants, he hurts the daemon and it makes the human scream, and it feels  _wrong_ , deep in his soul, like something calling out to him. 

Bucky Barnes has a small Yorkshire Terrier. It’s funny, for a little while, seeing him with a small dog, next to his best friend with a large lion, that sometimes people get them confused, that Anell is Bucky’s and Zita is Steve’s until Bucky lifts Zita into his arms and Steve places a hand on Anell’s big head, and their world spins 

The Winter Soldier sees Steve Rogers and Anell again, and something calls in his head for them, a voice not his own screaming for help, and he pushes it down for his duty, his job, his mission, but it doesn’t stop screaming at him until he’s far far away from Steve Rogers and _his Anell,_  and The Soldier shouldn’t know that name as well as he does. 

It’s not to say Bucky and Steve never touch each other’s daemons. It’s not normal for friends to do so, but they both knew they were more than that for the longest time. Bucky would curl up against Anell’s side and Steve would pace around with Zita in his arms, and they’d feel safe and calm and  _home_. 

Maybe it was better to try and avoid him, but the Soldier wants to hear that familiar yet not voice again. It’s hard to think when it yells at him to get his head back on straight, but he gets flashes of... something. A dog maybe? Was this-

No. The Winter Soldier doesn’t have a daemon, doesn’t need one.  _He ignores the anguished scream his soul makes at that moment._

It’s painful, when they have to separate, but then Bucky sees Steve again, and Steve grew into that daemon that used to be such a large force near him, but then sometimes that little daemon shifts to something small to hide, and Bucky is scared, but Steve just smiles and told it  _its a side effect_  like its normal, but that’s okay, because most of the time Anell is familiar to him, and he learns to get used to the gecko that hides in Steve’s shirt sometimes. 

The Soldier knows his choices go against his orders, his programming, but he needs to find that voice. It screams for him, calling out in an anguished voice that screams itself raw in his head, and he feels himself coming apart, flashes of Bucky shining through, then pushed back down _no, not yet_ , he needs to find Zita  _who is Zita_  he needs to find that voice again 

Steve is the obvious choice when he starts fighting those orders, because he knows, he started it without meaning to, and Steve takes in in stride, and Anell pounces on him the first thing and covers his face in slobbery kisses that feel more like a dog, but it feels  _right_ for the first time touching another daemon and the Soldier says so, and Steve looks pained a moment, before nodding and smiling at him. 

They fight like they have before, and the Soldier’s mind screams at him that they have,  _just remember_ , and Bucky breaks through once more, before  _no no no can’t need Zita_  and the Soldier is back, and Steve is tired and scared, and his little gecko hides in his shirt and cries the tears Steve can’t. 

The first is a bust, and the second and  _the third_ , and the Soldier feels like giving in to his orders, but his mind his soul screams just one more,  _you’re so close Bucky please_ , and they keep fighting, and the Soldier starts to melt away more and more, leaving something he doesn’t want to face. 

The fifth time is the charm and Soldier screams, killing with an efficiency that covers the ground in Dust, and has Anell cowering in Steve’s shirt and scream crying, but then Bucky’s screaming the same as a voice inside a cage, crying out and trying to get in, but he can’t and Steve’s there tearing open that cage and-

Zita is unsettled. Zita is shifting forms so quickly that Steve can’t make out one before she’s on the next and the next and the next, but Bucky screams and clings onto her and she stops, stuck in a bird of prey that Steve doesn't know, before shifting to a mouse to cling onto Bucky and sob with him, and Anell wraps her large form around them and Steve collapses, and sobs as he realizes what they’ve done to his friend. 

Shield is... unhelpful at best, but Tony is not. Tony learns and forces words out of people, and learns how to fix the damage done to them, learns everything that needs to be done to fix Zita, and Bucky, and they rejoice when Tony stumbles into their shared room at three am and flicks on the light to yell he’s done it, and Bucky cries, unashamed. 

Zita doesn't resettle for ages after the procedure Tony does, but that’s okay, because Bucky isn’t the same. Everyone knows it, and Steve doesn’t expect that little Yorkshire terrier back every again, and he’s okay with that, because Bucky took it with stride when his daemon double settled, and he can take it in stride when Bucky’s settles into something new as well 

It’s nearly a full year after Bucky broke out and Zita was saved when she settles on Steve’s chest and announces  _I’m done_  and Steve grins at her, because after everything, the therapy that those two went through and the bond reforming, and everything else, Zita has her shape down, her wonderful feline shape, and Bucky grins at Steve from the corner of the room and they feel home once again. 

The Winter Soldier doesn’t have a daemon. They make you weak and distract you from your mission. 

Bucky Barnes is not the Winter Soldier. He has a daemon, and has never felt stronger. 

**Author's Note:**

> Bucky- Zita, was a Yorkshire Terrier, resettled into a Norwegian Forest Cat  
> Steve- Anell, double settled as a result of the serum Lioness/Gecko


End file.
